Valorization of steel-work off-gases: Influence of impurities on the performance of Cu-based methanol synthesis catalyst

The use of steel-work off-gases as CO2 source for methanol production is a promising strategy the decarbonization steel industry. In this work, we show that typical impurities, namely S, N, Na, Ca and Fe, reduce activity commercial CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst by blocking part Cu active sites. extent loss proportional to poison-induced decrease in exposed surface area, suggesting poisons do not modify nature, but rather number only deviation observed its strong basicity leads stronger binding on surface. Moreover, all catalysts suffer from selectivity losses with time, due thermal sintering occurs similarly over untreated poisoned samples. Industrial can thus be exploited after appropriate purification targeted primarily at removal metal impurities. presence sulfur nitrogen less critical performance.